Penn State Rushing Chart (Wisconsin): Miles Sanders Finally Gets Room to Run

Welcome back to the Penn State rushing chart. Each week we’ll show you all of the different runners’ charts from the most recent game, as well as their cumulative stats for the season. There may be a few differences here and there from the stat lines you see on ESPN, Sports Reference, or elsewhere, but I’ll try to make sure to explain each of those differences below.

For weeks now, Miles Sanders has been given absolutely nothing to work within the run game. Against Wisconsin, that finally changed. Penn State committed to getting their star running back going on the ground against a softer defense than what they had seen recently, and it paid off. The star junior showed once again that if you give him an inch, he’ll take a mile.

• Once again, all of Tommy Stevens’ runs are being documented here, even though some of them came while he was under center.
• The story was Sanders. The junior back got some breathing room on the ground for the first time in weeks and reminded everyone of what he’s capable of. He showed power, elusiveness, quickness, shiftiness. It was arguably his most complete performance as a Nittany Lion and one that you’ll see plenty of highlights from going forward in his career. He also went over 1,000 yards for the season in this game.
• A big reason why Sanders was so successful was improved run blocking from the offensive line. The improvement was expected considering the defensive shortcomings on the other side, but it was still a good sign to see the boys up front get a good push in the run game.
• The receivers also had arguably their best game of the season as blockers. It could be a coincidence, but there was a new starting receiver package with DeAndre Thompkins, Jahan Dotson, and Hamler.
• Ricky Slade finally returned to action in this one. His only two carries went for a total of one yard. After a promising start to the 2018 season, the former five-star is surely looking forward to a fresh start this offseason.
• In keeping with the early theme of “Get Hamler the Ball” for the offense, they gave him a carry on a jet sweep that could have done more damage had he not run out of real estate. Perhaps it would have been wiser to call the play to run to the long side of the field, instead.

• On the broadcast, they mentioned that McSorley commented that his knee felt as good as it did pre-injury in this one. I’m going to look at this chart and go ahead and say that probably isn’t true.
• McSorley just isn’t much of a threat to run at this point in the season. The coaching staff is trying to use Stevens in an expanded role to keep the quarterback run threat alive, but it just isn’t working. They seem to be better off just letting McSorley run the offense full-time (as long as he’s healthy enough to play), and accepting that defenses know that he’ll be giving the ball off to Sanders more often than not. Or, instead of going heavy with read-option plays, lean more towards run-pass option concepts instead.